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Freshman English Writing Survey Sandra Eggers Asia University
Introduction
This paper presents two questionnaires on writing for the
Freshman English classes. A brief description of Asia
University students and some of the questions that motivated
this research will begin this paper. The next section will
discuss the results and draw some conclusions. The paper will
conclude with recommendations for classroom instruction.
Description of Students
At Asia University every Freshman English class contains a
wide range of writing ability. If asked to write a paragraph,
some students write very short "paragraphs" consisting of only
one or two sentences or sentence fragments. However, other
students write quite long and complex paragraphs following
correct form and often expressing complicated ideas. These
students seem to enjoy writing and put considerable thought and
energy into assignments. Understanding the background of our
students enables us to be more effective classroom instructors
and allows us to be more culturally aware of our students'
educational background.
Because of a language barrier, particularly at the lower
levels, teachers are often not really aware of the attitudes and
history of the students in their classes. Are these students
skilled or unskilled writers? Have they ever learned about
writing process techniques such as brainstorming? How much
writing have they done in English classes in high school? How
much writing have they done and are they doing in Japanese? Do
they even like to write in Japanese, let alone English? I
—1—
designed two questionnaires to help me understand the writing
history and attitudes of my Freshman English students. I also
hoped that they would shed light onto the writing behavior that
I observed in classes.
Administration of the Questionnaires
All three of the Freshman English level 10 classes filled
out questionnaires. To broaden the range of responses, the
Business and Law level 24 classes and the Economics and
International Relations level 8 classes were included in the
sample. This is by no means a random sample of the Freshman
English students. The results will be skewed toward students
with lower writing ability as none of the very top level classes
were polled. However, the attitudes and opinions that emerge
are probably valid for many of the students in the lower levels.
All three teachers involved in the research did essentially
the same steps in administering the questionnaires, although
timing of the paragraph writing occurred differently. Two
teachers assigned the paragraph as homework and another had the
students do it in class. To insure that students could
understand and respond easily to the questions, the
questionnaires were given in Japanese and the students answered
in that language also. The questions are mostly multiple
choice, but the few that did require a written response were
translated by student assistants with a fairly high ability in
English.
The Questionnaires and Responses
This first questionnaire explores the general writing
history and attitudes of Freshman English students. Following
—2—
are the results
occasionally not
(The figures
add up to
are rounded so
exactly 100%).
totals may
1) How many years of school have you completed? a. 12 years 65%
b. 13 years 24% c. 14-17 years 10%
(There are a number of foreign students in Freshman English classes who have attended university in their home countries Also, it is not unusual for Japanese students to attend a preparatory school for one or two years before attending university.)
2)
3)
How
a. b. c.
many years
6 years 7 years 8-12 years
Have you
year? a. Yes b. No
had
45% 55%
of English
51% 30% 14%
a native
have you
language
taken?
English teacher before this
3a)
4)
If
a. b. c.
yes, for how 1 year
2 years
3-5 years
Have
and a. b.
you list Yes No
learned
making) 9%
91%
many years? 58% 20% 16%
about
before
brainstorming (such as
in writing classes?
mind mapping
4a) If
a.
b. c. d.
yes, what year in school? High school first year
High school second year Freshman at Asia University
Other university
14%
7% 64%
4%
5) Can you generally
assignments sucha. Yes
b. No
36% 64%
write adequately for
as reports and papers?your class
6; Can you generally
activities such asa. Yes
b. No
41%
59%
write adequately
letter writing?for real life writing
7) Do you think write better a. Yes 46%
b. No 54%
your Japanese in English?
writing ability helps you to
8) Dc
a.
h.
you Yes
No
like to 49%
51%
write in Japanese?
—3—
9) Dc
a.
b.
you like to Yes 32%
No 68%
write in English?
10) What
a. b. c.
d. e.
f.
g.
is the hardest
word choice vocabulary thinking of ideas
organizing ideas
grammar other no response
aspect of 4% 7%
42% 31%
6% 2%
6%
writing in Japanese?
11) What
a. b. c.
d. e. f.
is the hardest word choice
vocabulary thinking of ideas
organizing ideas
grammar no response
aspect of 14% 25%
4% 35%
1%
18%
writing in English?
12) Place a check next to the type of
high school English classes. Then did this type of writing. (NR—no
writing you
circle how response)
did in often
your you
a. b. c.
d. e.
grammar exercises sentences
paragraphs compositions letters
NR
7%
38% 79% 64% 84%
Daily 32%
23% 6%
Weekly
55% 37% 9%
22% 4%
Monthly
3% 3%
3% 7% 4%
Yearly
3% 2%
1%
3% 6%
13)
a.
b. c. d.
Place other
often
a check next high school
you did this
sentences
paragraphs compositions
letters
to the type of writing
(not English) classes. type of writing.
NR
35% 76%
87% 59%
Daily
12% 5%
Weekly 36%
9% 3%
9%
you did Circle
Monthly
13% 6%
3% 9%
in
howyour
Yearly
3% 3%
7% 22%
14) Place other
circle
a check next to the type of writing you do university classes (not Freshman English) .
how often you do this type of writing.
in your Then
a. b.
c. d. e.
paragraphs compositions
letters research papers
book reviews
NR 85%
66% 87% 70%
62%
Daily 1%
2%
Weekly
9% 12%
3% 4%
5%
Monthly 1%
15% 6%
16% 2%
Yearly 4%
5% 3%
9% 14%
The second questionnaire asked questions specifically about
students write a paragraph.
paragraph and then fill out finished writing.
Students were asked to write a this questionnaire after they
how
—4—
1)
la)
2)
2a)
3)
4)
4a)
5)
Did you use a dictionary?
a. Yes 56% b. No 43%
Why or why not? (Students wrote their own answers to this
question.) a. there are words I don't know 45% b. to check spelling 4% c. not difficult to use the dictionary 2%
d. rely on dictionary too much 2% e. thought I couldn't use it 15%
f. used the words I know 20%
g. asking teacher is easier 2% h. didn't have a dictionary 4% i. found the words before writing 2%
Did you brainstorm (make a list or a mind map) before you wrote your paragraph?
a. Yes 57% b. No 38%
Why did you not use mind mapping or some other type of brainstorming technique?
a. could do without 10% b. wrote what came to mind 33%
c. did it in mind 10% d. didn't know about mind mapping 12%
e. no time 18% f. not useful 3%
g. troublesome 6% h. thought I didn't have to 6%
Did you revise or recopy your paragraph after writing? a. Yes 34% b. No 65%
Did you correct grammar mistakes?
a. Yes 37%
b. No 61%
Now many times did you make corrections?
a. 1-3 times 78% b. 4-6 times 15%
c. 7-10 times 3% d. 11-13 times 2%
e. 13 time and above 2%
Do you usually think of what to write in Japanese and then
translate the sentence to English? a. Yes 80%
b. No 16% c. No response 4%
-5-
Interpretation of the Results
The survey revealed that most of the students are unskilled
writers. By unskilled I mean that only a very small percentage
have learned about writing process techniques. Most students
don't know about the importance of brainstorming techniques or
about the concept of writing processes. Some of those that are
aware of these techniques consider them a nuisance or too time
consuming to be useful. Few students take the time to revise
and therefore rely on their first thesis statement. Few
students have extensive experience writing in either Japanese or
English. English education in Japan has concentrated on grammar
exercises, not writing.
Surprisingly, the students don't seem to be overly
concerned with error correction. Many students did not use a
dictionary at all or only a few times. A significant proportion
said they were consciously trying to use the vocabulary they
knew. The number of corrections for grammar was also very low.
Another interesting result was what they considered to be
the most difficult aspect of writing. For Japanese, the biggest
concern was idea development. For English, though, the biggest
concern was idea organization. This finding may not be
surprising in light of how little English writing many of them
have actually done. They are not familiar with the concepts of
thesis statements, topic development, and the form of a
paragraph or essay. Because many rely heavily on translating
their Japanese thoughts into English, the form of their
paragraphs is often circular as in Japanese writing, rather than
linear as in English writing (Kaplan, 1967).
-6-
Recommendations for Freshman English Teachers
The following section will address four characteristics of
Freshman English writers that emerged from the research and make
suggestions for classroom instruction.
1) Many of the Freshman English students are unskilled
writers. They have little practice in writing.
An effective method to help students become more practiced
at writing is using journals in classes. Writing is a skill and
like any skill, actually doing it is the best practice. Writing
in journals allows students the informal writing situations and
practice they need. By informal I do not necessarily mean
personal. Ruth Spack (1983) recommends the use of journals on
classroom topics, rather than purely personal ones--which ESL
students feel are inappropriate for classroom conversation--to
help students develop ideas. I assign journal topics that
personalize the themes in the Freshman English text, New
Perspectives. For example, I ask them to write whether or not
they plan to marry or what type of job they would like in the
future. Often, the "writing" is simply making a list or a mind
map. In this way, students are practicing many types of
writing.
2) Students view writing as a one-step task involving
little planning or revising. They are unaware that
writing is a process.
One technique that could be used to help students learn
about the writing process is to have the students do
brainstorming either individually or with a partner. This
initial brainstorming can be shared with the class through a
group discussion, resulting in putting many different ideas on
—7—
the board. The teacher can feel free to interject ideas.
Students then copy all of the ideas into their journals and
choose the ones they want to write a paragraph about. This
brainstorming worked particularly well with the topic, "Why do
People Get Married?"
To help students learn about revising, teachers can have
students rewrite paragraphs from tests. The teachers write
comments, usually in question form, on all of the paragraphs .
The teacher then groups the students--hopefully with people of
varying writing ability. Students then read the paragraphs and
ask each other questions, using the teacher's questions as a
starting point. One of the paragraphs my students wrote in my
classes had originated from a list of questions students asked
each other about working women. In helping each other to revise
the paragraphs, students looked back at the original list of
questions.
3) Students consider organizing ideas a difficult
aspect of writing English.
Presenting models for students to use and copy will help
students with their writing. I usually showed students a sample
writing early in the explanation of the writing assignment .
With lower levels it seems particularly important to model
thesis sentences. I have also copied both good and bad samples
of student writing onto overhead transparencies . Watson (1982)
suggests that models are important for the ESL classroom , but
that they should be introduced after the students have written a
draft. This allows students to create and own their own texts
and meaning. Kaplan (1966), on the other hand, urges teachers
to use models throughout the writing process. Introduction of
—8—
models will help students understand the overall linear
organization of an English paragraph or essay in contrast to the
often circular nature of a Japanese paragraph.
Conclusion
This survey was done in November 1993, which is almost the
end of the university year in Japan. The information and ideas
I gained in how to teach students writing at Asia University is
invaluable. Next year, I will give the questionnaires to my
students. I plan to revise and refine the questions and have
them ready at the beginning of the year. I invite all of my
colleagues to administer the questionnaires to their students .
Since this survey was not a representative sample, they may find
that their students' writing skills are different from those
students represented here. In this way, we can become more
effective teachers and the Freshman English Program can begin to
gather information for a new curriculum.
I would like to thank Kazuhiko Nakamura for his help with translating the questionnaires and data analysis, the ELERI
student assistants for translating the results, and Laura Bush and Rebecca Pulst for administering the questionnaires in their
classes and giving me advice and encouragement.
—9—
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